Habitat: Expanding ArchitectureHabitat: Expanding Architecture

In 1987 the exhibition 'Nieuw Nederland' (The New Netherlands) took place on the initiative of the foundation Nederland Nu Als Ontwerp (The Netherlands Now As Design) with the city planner Dirk Frieling as chairman. With a view to the future urbanisation of the Netherlands, four scenarios were developed for the spatial development of the Netherlands up to the year 2050 in order to make the urgent choices transparent to politicians and the public.

The four scenarios met different political visions of the future: 'careful', 'critical', 'dynamic' and 'relaxed'. The first three sated the wishes of the three main streams in Dutch politics at the time, those of Christian democracy, social democracy and liberalism, while the fourth offered a problem-solving 'technocratic' approach, elaborated by the initiators of the event.

For the 'relaxed' scenario Peter Terreehorst designed a new landscape in Zeeland inspired by the monumental delta works that protect the delta landscape of former estuaries and islands from the natural impact of the North Sea. The Terreehorst plan combines issues of food production and sea defences with dynamic landscape formation to meet seemingly opposite needs. In a series of steps the plan worked towards an assembly of 'fast breeding ponds' for fish and shellfish (so-called maricultures), recreational areas and residential areas. Together, these steps would result in an ecosystem that would make the southwestern Dutch delta future-proof on all these aspects.